And McCallum, who served as the Liberals' immigration critic in the last Parliament, says he's not backing away from Jan. 1 as the target date for fulfilling that promise.

With only eight weeks remaining, McCallum says he is waiting to be briefed intensely on the file.

He says he'll be reaching out quickly to different levels of government, non-governmental organizations and other federal departments, including the federal ministries of Defence, Health and Public Safety, which he says all have a role to play in the program.

McCallum's new portfolio, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, was announced earlier Wednesday at a colourful swearing-in ceremony for the new Liberal cabinet.

The Liberals made the 25,000-by-year-end Syrian refugee pledge during an election campaign in which refugee policy took on unexpected domestic significance. A photograph of a drowned three-year-old Alan Kurdi, who died with his mother and young brother while fleeing Syria, captured the world's attention - and Canada's - when it became known his family had identified this country as a potential place of refugee.

Prior to the election, the Conservative government had committed to resettle 11,300 Syrian refugees over the next three years. Prior to Kurdi's death, the Conservatives added a campaign commitment to bring another 10,000, to be spread over the next four years.

The Liberals promised 25,000 refugee placements immediately, and $200 million split between the department and the United Nations to help with the refugee program.

McCallum didn't specifically comment on the funding, nor the timeline, in his brief meeting with the media following the Liberal government's first cabinet meeting Wednesday.

As he walked away from reporters, he was asked whether he was walking away from the deadline and he replied "not at all."

Ralph Goodale, the new Public Safety minister, said cabinet will work together when asked if the Jan. 1 deadline is feasible.

"We are going to bend every effort to get this job done, get it done right and properly and fulfil the commitment the prime minister made," he said.

Some groups working in refugee resettlement have expressed doubts that so many can be handled in just a few weeks time, though they don't question the overall resettlement goal.

Three decades ago Canada resettled about 60,000 refugees from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia in a matter of 18 months, noted Brian Dyck, the head of the organization representing private sponsorship groups in Canada.

"It's something that can be done,'' he said in an interview earlier this week. "It takes focus, it takes people who are good at the logistical challenges and solving those but it is something we can do."

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Trudeau's Cabinet

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has kept his promise of a smaller, gender-balanced cabinet.
At 31 ministers (including him), Trudeau's first cabinet features many new faces and some veterans.

Minister of Finance
Morneau is the former executive chair of Morneau Shepell, one of Canada's largest human resources firms.

Minister of Foreign Affairs
An MP since 1996, Dion served as Canada's intergovernmental affairs minister under Jean Chrétien and environment minister under Paul Martin. He served as Liberal leader and leader of the Official Opposition from 2006 to 2008.

Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
Wilson-Raybould is a former Crown prosecutor and regional chief of the B.C. Assembly of First Nations.

Minister of International Trade
An MP since 2013, Freeland was courted by Trudeau's team when she was a senior editor at Thomson Reuters in New York City.A Rhodes scholar, she is a well-known author and journalist. She was part of Trudeau's team of economic advisers.

Minister of Health
Philpott is a family physician, associate professor at the University of Toronto, and former chief of the department of family medicine at Markham Stouffville Hospital.

Minister of National Defence
Sajjan is a retired lieutenant colonel who served in Afghanistan and was the first Sikh to command a Canadian Army regiment. He also served as a Vancouver police officer for 11 years.

Minister of the Environment and Climate Change
McKenna was a former legal adviser for the United Nations peacekeeping mission in East Timor and founded Canadian Lawyers Abroad (now known as Level), a charity focused on global justice issues.

Minister of Employment, Workforce Development, and Labour
Mihychuk was an NDP MLA in Manitoba from 1995 to 2004, serving as minister of industry, trade, and mines, and later minister of intergovernmental affairs.

Minister of Infrastructure and Communities
An Edmonton city councillor since 2007, Sohi immigrated to Canada from India 35 years ago. He spent time as a political prisoner in India in the late 1980s.

Minister of Canadian Heritage
Joly, 36, made a name for herself by finishing second to ex-Liberal cabinet minister Denis Coderre in the Montreal mayoral race in 2013. She's a lawyer and communications expert.

Minister of Democratic Institutions
Monsef, a community organizer, was born in Afghanistan. She fled the Taliban and came to Canada as a refugee with her widowed mother and sisters in 1996.

Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defence
Hehr was an Alberta MLA from 2008 to 2015, was one of just two Liberals elected in Calgary. In 1991, he was the victim of a drive-by shooting that left him confined to a wheelchair.

Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities
Qualtrough is a lawyer and former Paralympian. Legally blind, she won three Paralympic and four World Championship medals for Canada in swimming and was president of the Canadian Paralympic Committee.

Minister of Families, Children, and Social Development
Duclos is a renowned economist who taught at at Laval University.

Minister of Natural Resources
Carr, a former Manitoba MLA and deputy leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party, served as president of the Business Council of Manitoba from 1998 to 2014.

Minister of Public Services and Procurement
An MP since 2008 and the party whip, Foote previously held several cabinet portfolios in Brian Tobin's provincial government.

Minister of Transport
The former astronaut, navy engineer, president of the Canadian Space Agency and Liberal leadership contender was first elected in 2008. He has served as an industry and foreign affairs critic.

Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness
The finance minister under Paul Martin's government, Goodale was the only Liberal elected in Saskatchewan.

Minister of Innovation, Science, and Economic Development
An MP from 2004 to 2011, Bains regained his seat this year. In addition to being a certified management accountant, holding an MBA, and teaching at Ryerson University, Bains was an important Trudeau organizer and also served on the Liberals' national election readiness committee.

President of the Treasury Board
An MP since 1997, Brison was the public works minister and receiver general of Canada in Paul Martin's government. He had been the Liberal spokesman on economic issues and the vice-chair of the Commons' committee on finance.

Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs
A family physician who has been an MP since 1997, Bennett was Canada's first minister of state for public health and oversaw the 2003 response to the SARS epidemic. In recent years, Bennett has served as the party's vocal critic on aboriginal affairs.

Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food
An MP since 1988, MacAulay has served as solicitor general of Canada, minister of labour, secretary of state for veterans and secretary of state for the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. In the last Parliament, MacAulay was the critic for fisheries and oceans.

Minister of Fisheries, Oceans, and the Canadian Coast Guard
LeBlanc served as the Government House leader until August 2016, when he was replaced by Bardish Chagger.
LeBlanc was sworn in as a privy councillor in 2004 when, under Paul Martin, he served as parliamentary secretary to the leader of the government in the House and deputy government whip. He is a childhood friend of Trudeau's.

Minister of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship
First elected in 2000, McCallum, a former chief economist at the Royal Bank of Canada, served as minister of national defence and minister of veterans affairs under Jean Chrétien. He was named minister of national revenue under Paul Martin and was also tasked with leading an expenditure review of government spending.

Leader of the Government in the House of Commons and Minister of Small Business and Tourism
Chagger, 35, worked for the Kitchener-Waterloo Multicultural Centre. She also worked on Trudeau's leadership campaign.

Minister of National Revenue
A small business owner who has been an elected warden for the Regional County Municipality of Rocher Percé since 2010, Lebouthillier won a seat in Gaspé that the Liberals haven't held in more than a decade.

Minister of International Development and La Francophonie
Bibeau worked for the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) in Ottawa, Montréal, Morocco and Benin, Africa, before settling and launching her own business in her riding.

Minister of Science
Elected in 2008, Duncan taught meteorology, climatology, climate change, and medical geography at the university level.